Donald Trump's lead in the Republican race is real, but far from secure. At the moment, the billionaire has 458 delegates and Ted Cruz has 359. That's a 99 delegate lead with more than 1,400 delegates still to be selected. Cruz has plenty of room to come from behind if he's able to defeat Trump in a head-to-head match-up.

The race for the Republican presidential nomination has a long way to go, and it's still quite possible that some candidate other than Donald Trump will be nominated. But, to the shock of many, it’s also possible that Trump could move into the White House next year.

This past Tuesday, I had my first ride in an autonomous car. The anticipation for me was a bit like a kid waiting for Christmas. But when I shared my enthusiasm with friends and colleagues, many thought I was crazy.

As the absurdity of our presidential nomination process adds daily to public cynicism about politics and government, it's encouraging to recognize that governing is not the responsibility of government alone.

Robert Laszewski may be the nation's leading expert on President Obama's health care law. He is skeptical of the claims made by both supporters and opponents of the law, and he offers an interesting take about the law's role in the 2016 election: "Democrats can't admit Obamacare is broken and Republicans can't admit it won't be repealed."

As Senator Ted Cruz has become a serious contender for the Republican presidential nominating contest, he's facing greater scrutiny and opposition. That's to be expected. Some of the opposition is fairly traditional. Iowa's governor just attacked Cruz for opposing ethanol subsidies. Cruz opposes the subsidies because he doesn't believe the federal government should be picking business winners and losers. Politically, that's a big deal in a state where corn is a major crop and those federal subsidies prop up the price of corn.

"[The World War II] generation's extraordinary faith in the federal government was a temporary aberration brought about by unique circumstances. Their world no longer exists, and the political system it created is collapsing around us. Our challenge now is to rebuild a political system that recognizes the inability of the federal government to lead our nation." – Scott Rasmussen

Heading into a presidential election year, it's important to remember that political involvement is but one of many ways we can work together to solve problems. Sometimes it's the best approach; sometimes it's not. When our political system is broken beyond repair — as it is today — there's a need for other approaches in order to do the heavy lifting. To solve the challenges before our nation, we need to take an all-hands-on-board approach that unleashes the creativity and resources of individual Americans, families, community groups, churches, small businesses, local governments, and more. The problems we face are too big to be left to the politicians alone.

It's been amusing in recent weeks to watch Washington pundits grappling with Trumpmania and the surge of Bernie Sanders. To say that the rise of these unusual candidates has been unsettling for the political elites would be a gross understatement.

Supporters and opponents offer wildly different explanations and theories. They all pore over the data and get into the details of who is signing up, what the risk pools look like and other things actuaries find exciting

When the South lost the Civil War, new opposition arose to the nation's founding ideals. Progressives of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were OK with the idea of equality, but they hated the idea of individual rights that limited the power of government. Sounding a lot like Calhoun, President Woodrow Wilson complained that the American people had never gotten over the Declaration. Both the segregationists and the progressives saw the Declaration of Independence as an impediment to their plans.

It is time for the pundits to get a grip and realize that the election for president is not about the candidates lusting for the job. It's not about campaign strategies, speeches, gotcha journalism and gaffes. It is about the fundamentals and the state of the nation.

The idea of rule by a wise philosopher-king goes back at least 2,500 years to the writing of Plato. However, the self-serving interpretation of that ideal by today's political elites is not at all what Plato had in mind. Spock would never agree to lead such a self-serving elite.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has emerged as a serious contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. In response, the Washington Post researched and published a lengthy article on the "mystery" of why Walker dropped out of college.

The decision to attack Walker for failing to graduate tells us more about the worldview of the Washington Post and the political class than it does about the Wisconsin Governor.

For decades, American presidents urged the American people to reduce our reliance on foreign oil imports by conserving energy. Nothing worked.

In defiance of the prevailing political wisdom, individual Americans insisted that the answer was not cutting back on the use of energy but finding new sources of energy. When politicians tried to force people into smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, the gas-hogging SUV emerged as a vehicle of choice for millions.

It's been a year and a half since Edward Snowden revealed to the world just how much private information the National Security Agency has been collecting on just about everyone. The massive spying operation raised privacy and Constitutional concerns and set off alarms with reports that some employees had used the system to keep tabs on their love interests.

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